Hello my dears, and welcome back me. My, what a month February has been! I don’t really want to go into detail, let’s just say that on top of the health problems I told you about last time, I developed shingles, and to add insult to injury (or was it the other way round?), it only showed in my face. I still went to work inspite until my left eye started swelling and closing, and my coworker sent me home with strict orders to stay away until I had recovered. So here I am, home on sick leave, and still no progress to speak of. And guess what? I’m done with the contemplating and worrying and caring, it won’t make any of this go away. I’ll just take each day as it comes, try to regroup and look for a new direction. Something or other will turn up with time, I’m sure. For now, I’ll just LIVE. Oh, and I’ve registered with a driving school, so bike driving license, here I come.

Due to numerous things (like forgetting that February actually is a few days shorter than all the other months) I’m a bit late with my calendar pages this month. I’ve chosen snowdrops for March – nothing else speaks „spring“ to me like snowdrops do. I’m so glad that at least some of them survived the landscaping we did last year! By the way, I don’t know if I mentioned this before – if you like my calendar pages and would like to keep them or collect them, feel free to download them. (Do not reblog or publish anywhere without asking first, though, please.) I’ll add an extra album to the Eye Candy page soon.

On to the crafty stuff, shall we? As you can see, my Chocolate Box blanket is growing. All these squares were made from the same yarn, and I’m seriously tempted to go to my LYS and buy whatever balls they have left – if they have any of this left. The way the colours play together is just so lovely, and to be honest, I can’t picture any of my other sock yarns working so beautifully with this pattern. Then again, even if I did manage to buy a few more balls of this yarn, it would absolutely defeat the purpose of the blanket because a, I wanted to use up as much of my sock yarn remnants as possible, and b, I wanted this blanket to be made lots of different yarns, to give it a million different colours and the look and feel of all the many different variagated yarns I’ve used so far. I’ve used many of the blues and greys and dark colours on the Waver blanket, and am going to keep it blue-ish if possible (unless I get sea-sick, that is), but I really need something else to use up the multi-coloured yarns and all the pinks and pastels and yellows that don’t stand out against the white rows in the Waver blanket. So to cut a long story short – going to keep working on the Chocolate Box blanket and introduce some of my other yarns to it soon.

The Surf & Turf stole is finished. Well, at least the knitting part is done, I have yet to block it. No matter how much I love to knit lace, the blocking part is my least favourite. I never seem to get the edges straight, it always ends up wonky and wobbly. Plus even though I own a set of those styrofoam puzzle mats that were all the rage a few years ago, they are just never big enough for my lace shawls, and I end up dragging the shawls through the house, in search of something to block them on, and a place where they can dry peacefully. For now and the Surf & Turf stole, I’m waiting for spring to bring warm, sunny, and most of all dry days so I can take it outside and block it right there.

Next, I started a new pair of socks in a rather plain (and slightly dull) light blue. Since the yarn doesn’t have much to offer in the „catches your eye“ department, I decided to spice up the pattern a bit. No plain vanillas this time, but a very simple ribbing pattern – rd 1 + 2: k2, p2, rd 3 + 4: knit. I haven’t taken a photo of it yet, actually I’m still on the foot part of sock no. 1. My knitting got interrupted by the kitchen remodel – we inherited a certain sum of money and decided to finally get the kitchen done. Actually, it was on the list for this year anyway, but thanks to the extra Euros, we were able to buy an Ikea kitchen instead of building all the furniture from scratch. We put up new wallpaper, laid new laminate flooring, bought the furniture, brought it home and assembled it (as for that, Steve had to do most of it alone because the cold he had so generously passed on to me finally knocked me off my feet on Assembly Day), all within a mere week. No, I’m not kidding you – Tuesday was wallpaper day, Thursday we finished the wallpaper and started laying the floor, Friday we went to Ikea to get our furniture, and the rest of the weekend was spent finishing the floor and putting up the furniture. We had our first meal in our new kitchen on Saturday evening. We’ve since sorted through all our stuff, thrown out some older pots and pans and some china and glasses and stuff, given all the stuff we’re going to keep a good swim in the dishwasher, and sorted everything into the various cabinets. I just love how well thought-out everything is, and how organized we can be now, and how lovely it looks. Cooking and baking is so much more fun when everything you need is within reach, and there’s a place for everything. I promise to show you the new kitchen in all it’s glory soon.

Well, that leaves me with this:

This was supposed to become Drops 8-2 jumper, and I wanted it to be extra huge. Unfortunately, it will fit but not be huge, and I found out the hard way (by looking in the mirrow) that those 80s style jumpers with a high cuff and extra wide sleeves don’t look flattering on me. So I’ve since frogged the dear thing and re-started, same pattern, same yarn, smaller cuff, and I’m going to give it regular sleeves. Knitting it is fun, the pattern is easy enough, and for some reason, stranded knitting is just so much faster. I’m quite content with how it looks, and trying to ignore the fact that there will be steeking and cutting.

Well, that’s about all I was up to in February. Here’s hoping March will be better, in every respect.

If you’re curious about what my fellow YOPpers are up to, or would like to join in the fun, find our group on Ravelry.